China should roughly halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to keep the world on a safe climate path, the head of the US delegation at UN climate talks in Barcelona said today.
Leading industrialised countries say that the world must halve greenhouse gases by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change, and have committed to lead by cutting their own emissions by 80 per cent.
China should cut by about 50 per cent, leaving space for poorer countries to grow their economies, Jonathan Pershing said.
"If you put China in there at a 50 per cent reduction, if we're a bit higher, that gives lesser developed countries a bit lower. If they are in that middle band, plus or minus some percentage, that seems about right."
China would be on course to meet that goal if it repeated its present energy efficiency five-year plan into the future, he added. "They're doing pretty well."
Beijing has not set a 2050 goal for its emissions, saying that it needs to put priority on ending poverty. The United States has not made a formal demand of China.
The Group of Eight failed at a summit in Italy in July to persuade developing nations such as China and India to sign up to a global goal of halving world emissions by 2050 as part of a drive to slow more droughts, storms, floods and rising seas.
The UN talks in Barcelona have struggled to overcome a rich-poor divide. Developing nations say rich countries have to do far more before they sign up to a halving of emissions, and note that the United States has not set a carbon law for itself.
Many countries at the talks say that Washington, the only developed country outside the existing Kyoto Protocol for curbing emissions until 2012, has to come up with a number for cuts in Copenhagen or others will simply sit on the fence.